


Invite

by miss_slipslop



Category: Baby-Sitters Club - Ann M. Martin, California Diaries - Ann M. Martin
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-04
Updated: 2012-01-04
Packaged: 2017-10-28 22:42:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/312975
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miss_slipslop/pseuds/miss_slipslop
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jeff Schafer and Zeke Blume realize they have more in common than they originally thought. Friendship fic, set during Maggie's second diary.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Invite

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lucida](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lucida/gifts).



> For lucida for fandom_stocking, who's asked for Jeff and Zeke friendship fic for ages.

“Dawn, why do you even have these earrings? They’re ugly.”

My sister rolls her eyes at me. “Jeff, stop going through my stuff.”

“It’s fun because it drives you crazy,” I say, holding up the gross pair. “Seriously, why would you go around with huge feathers in your ears?”

“Sunny gave them to me.” She says, snatching them back. “Now go be annoying somewhere else.”

“Everywhere else is boring.” I say, moving to her bed, and sprawling out.

“Go email the Pike triplets or something!”

“I already have.”

“Ugh.” She sits down next to me. “I guess you’re going to keep bothering me until they email you back then?”

“That’s the plan!”

“The joys of summer vacation.” She sighs. “Well, Maggie’s coming over in a few minutes, so you can only annoy me for so long. We’re probably going to the mall. Want to come, and help me pick out a new sundress?”

“Ew!”

“That’s what I thought.” She grins.

“Wait,” I say. “Maggie Blume’s coming over?”  
“  
Yeah.”

“She’s weird. I heard she cried at school because she got a 98 on her math test.”

“Don’t be mean.” My sister says, slightly sharply. “Maggie’s going through some hard times right now, and as her friend, it’s my job to support her,” she finishes primly.

“I can’t even believe she would lower herself to come over here, from her little fantasyland mansion.”

Dawn snorts. “Trust me Jeff, it’s not fantasyland.” She turns out the light in her room. “Okay. I love you, now get out.”

“What do you suggest I do?”

“Put on a new shirt!”

“This is my favorite striped one!”

“It’s also like, three sizes too small.”

“Ooh, do I embarrass you?”

“All the time.” She smiles sweetly at me.

\--  
I’m in my room, checking email, when the doorbell rings.  
“  
You get it!” Dawn yells. “I’m putting on a new dress!”

Girls are so weird. “I don’t want to!” I yell back.

“Get the door, or I’ll tell dad you walked to the ice cream store by yourself last week!”

Damn it. I roll my eyes but head to the foyer.

The first thing I notice when I see Maggie is that she looks tired. Like, creepily tired. She’s wearing makeup, but that doesn’t hide the dark circles under her eyes or how pale she is. Then, her dress is hanging off her. I’d heard Dawn and Sunny talking the other night about how she’s too skinny, and now, I know exactly what they mean.

The second thing I notice, is that she’s not by herself.

“Hey Jeff.” Maggie smiles at me. “You remember my brother Zeke, right?”

I look at the boy standing next to her. Of course I remember Zeke. We go to the same school, have even played soccer together a few times, but have never really been the closest of friends. The longest conversations we’ve ever had were to well, talk about how annoying our sisters are.

What surprises me though, is today, he looks as tired as Maggie.

“Do you mind if he hangs out here?” Maggie asks me.

I shrug. “Sure.”

“Thanks--”

“Hey Maggie!” Dawn comes in, smiling brightly. Then, she does a double take. “Zeke wants to come to the mall too?”

“No.” He rolls his eyes. I shoot him a sympathetic glance, and get a small grin.

“Do you mind if he’s over here?” Maggie asks Dawn now. She grimaces at her. “My mom decided to have a little too much fun last night, so neither us want to be in the house today.”

“Oh Maggie.” Dawn moves toward her friend, puts a hand on her shoulder. “Of course. Are you doing okay?”

Maggie smiles tightly at my sister. “I’m fine Dawn. It’s no big deal. I’m used to it.”

Beside her, Zeke lets a slight snort. There is a slightly awkward pause.

“Well, do you want to go shopping?”

“I guess. Even though I’m too fat to find anything that I like--”

“Alright!” Dawn says, interrupting her, and elbowing me as I’m about to open my mouth. “Let’s go then. Jeff, have fun, and don’t do anything too crazy. Show Zeke your video games or something.”

“Jeez Dawn, this isn’t a play date. I think we can come up with stuff to do.”

“Whatever.” She ruffles my hair.

“Hey!”

“Love you!” She yells, before slamming the door behind her and Maggie.

There is a slightly awkward pause. Like I said, Zeke and I know each other, but we do have different groups of friends.

“So.” I say. “Want to play soccer?”

“It’s too hot outside.” Zeke pauses. “Got any ice cream?”

“Is chocolate good?”

“Duh. That’s the best kind.”

Okay, maybe this is going to work out.

\--

“So,” I say, as we sit in the air conditioned kitchen, eating our second bowls of ice cream. “Having a good summer?” I shake myself. Nice Jeff. I just asked Zeke the question I hate.

He raises an eyebrow at me. “Are you my aunt or something?”

I can’t help but grin. “The second it came out of my mouth, I realized it was a dumb question.”

“Very dumb.” He nods. “And no, not really. My house sort of sucks right now.”

I nod, while thinking that despite the crazy parents, I’d still love the home theatre, the pool, and the tennis courts.

“The fancy stuff’s not that great,” Zeke says, reading my mind. “I like your house better.”

I smile slightly, remembering an expression my dad’s fond of. The grass is always greener on the other side. I mean, my house is fine, but it’s not perfect. At all. Dad can be fun, but he’s also a control freak. Then, there’s the little thing about my mom living three thousand miles away. I love Carol, but she can’t make grilled cheese sandwiches the way my mom can.

Zeke thinks my family seems awesome though, just like I love the Pikes, even though the triplets laugh at me and say it’s a madhouse.

“My parents are divorced.” I blurt out.

Zeke nods. “I know. Your dad’s cool though.”

“He can get mad sometimes.”

“At least he makes jokes.” Zeke pokes at his ice cream. “I don’t think my dad would know something funny if it smacked him over the head.”

“That’s kind of sad.”

“Yup.” He rolls his eyes. “Also, I don’t think your dad would ever make you go to some stupid tennis camp where you have to wear a suit jacket to formal events.”

“Yuck!”

“Exactly. So you’re pretty lucky.”

I nod, thinking. Dad’s letting me go to soccer camp next month, but that’s because I want to. Then, he’s let me do whatever I’ve liked for the past few weeks school’s been out. He didn’t even care when I’d slept until noon a couple days ago!

“Dawn’s pretty together too.” Zeke says, slowly.

“She’s alright, I guess.

“She actually eats things.” He stares down at the kitchen table. “I tried to put extra cereal in Maggie’s bowl the other day, and she started yelling at me.”

Okay. I am never complaining about my life again. A second later though, I’m even more surprised, as Zeke’s eyes fill with tears.

Uh-oh. I mean, it’s not that crying weirds me out. I would be lying if I said that I’ve never started randomly crying, because I’ve actually done that a lot. Then, Byron Pike is ridiculously sensitive and I’ve definitely seen him cry before, but he’s my best friend, and I normally know what to do. It’s different when someone I barely know just had a heart to heart with me over ice cream, and is now trying not to start sobbing.

Poor Zeke, I suddenly think. I doubt he really has anyone to talk to. The Blume’s hardly seem like the “let’s discuss our feelings around the dinner table” family.

“Hey.” I say, softly. “It’s okay. Do you want some more ice cream?”

He starts laughing slightly. “Yeah.” He says. “I’m sorry. You must think I’m the biggest girl ever.”

I shake my head. “It’s no big deal. Really.”

He wipes his eyes. “It’s just really hard. Maggie’s not doing well, and she’s like, the only stable person I have. The only one who understands how screwed up things are, really. If something happened to her, I would run away and join the circus.”

I sigh. “Nothing’s going to happen to Maggie.” Deep down though, I don’t completely believe what I just said. Today I’d noticed that when she’d reached to grab the doorknob, her hands had been shaking.

“She’d better start eating again when I’m at camp.” Zeke sniffs. “Seriously. Maggie drives me nuts, but she’s also my sister.”

I smile slightly. “That’s how I think about Dawn.” Whatever, I think. If we’re going to talk about our feelings, I might as well admit that I secretly love my sister too. After all, when she’d run away to Connecticut that one time, I’d cried for two hours straight.

“You guys must have been through a lot together too.”

“Oh yeah. She’s the only one who gets how much the whole arrangement with our parents sucks.” I sigh. Great. I was in a good mood when I’d woken up, and the last thing I want to do is start thinking about those last days of my parents marriage, when Dawn and I would hide in her room, blasting the volume of the television to drown out their yelling.

“She’s pretty cool.” I manage to say. “And it’s nice that we’ve got each other, just like you and Maggie do.” I smile at him, thinking about how a couple days ago, Dawn and I had actually started laughing about some of the fights my parents had gotten into. “Who knows? Maybe in a couple years, you’ll find all this humorous.”

“Maybe.” He sighs too.

“It’s going to be okay.” I hear myself saying, and oh God, I really am turning into one of Carol or my mom’s annoying friends.

“Sure, Mr. Motivational Speaker.” He smirks at me.

“Anyways,” I say. “You can always come over here, this summer, if you want. I don’t have a pool, but we’ve got a sprinkler and I’ve got lots of video games and comic books.”

He grins at me, the first real smile I’ve seen all morning. “Seriously?”

“Yeah.” I pause for a moment. “You’re not bad, Zeke. We should hangout more.”

“You’re not bad yourself. Hey!” He grins even wider. “You should give me your email, so when I’m at the stupid camp, I can write to you about how much it sucks, and we can play games online.”

“That sounds good. Emailing’s fun.”

“It’s so awesome.” He nods. “Maybe this summer isn’t going to be complete bullshit after all.”

“Language, Zeke Blume.” I say, trying to do an impression of our old teacher.

“Oh come on! I’ve heard far worse things come out of your mouth during soccer games!”

“That wasn’t me.” I get up, and start collecting the ice cream bowls. “I’m a perfect little angel, all the time.” I give him a cheesy grin.

“Sure you are.”

I laugh. “Come on. Let’s go play Super Smash Brothers.”

\--

When Dawn and Maggie get back a few hours later, we’ve played over ten rounds. Now, I’m showing Zeke an online soccer game I love.

“Oh good. Our brothers have bonded over the internet.” Dawn laughs, before ruffling my hair again.

“Cut it out, crazy!”

“Cut it out crazy!” She mimics, darting away from me as I reach out to shove her. “So, she says. “Did you guys have fun?”

“Yeah!"

"Good." She says. "Well, the mall was great. I got a dress, and Maggie found some really cute shoes--”

“Boring!” Zeke and I yell together, and then crack up.

Dawn smirks at me. “I thought you two would get along.”

“Hey Dawn!” Maggie calls, coming into the room. “Are there any veggie burgers in the freezer?”

My sister smiles slightly. Zeke looks up from the computer, his face ridiculously hopeful.

“Yeah.” Dawn says. “Do you want one?”

Maggie nods slowly. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think I am a little hungry.”

Dawn snorts. “You should be. Your lunch at the mall was a protein smoothie.”

“It wasn’t that great.” Maggie says softly. “So, veggie burgers? Or a veggie burger because if I eat two, I know I’ll become enormous.”

“Of course. I’ll get them on.”

As they head into the kitchen, Zeke and I exchange a look.

“It’s a start,” he says.

I nod in agreement, as we begin playing our game once more, and Maggie and Dawn’s laughter echoes from the nearby kitchen.


End file.
